The AAFC Had A Big Impact On The NFL
Through the years, the National Football League has had several rival leagues attempt to compete with them. The American Football League is the most prominent. After a solid ten year existence with two Super Bowl wins for their side, the AFL earned a merger with the NFL.
This was actually the fourth rival league to call itself the AFL. The previous three only lasted a couple years, but the second AFL produced the Cleveland Rams, which joined the NFL when that league folded. In the 1940's, a new league was founded that greatly effected the NFL.
It was called the All American Football Conference, and the NFL executives did not take it seriously when it was founded. In fact, they made jokes about the league not being on their level. Why should they worry? All the other leagues that challenged them to that point had failed.
The AAFC fielded eight teams in 1946. Only one team won the championship in the league's four year history, the Cleveland Browns. They racked up an impressive 47-4-3 record, and this team was so popular in Cleveland, the Rams would relocate to Los Angeles.
The second best team in the league was the San Francisco 49ers, but being in the same division as the Browns prevented them from playing in the first three championship games. The New York Yankees lost the first two championships and the Buffalo Bills lost the third one. This was not the same Bills franchise that exists today, but it inspired the name.
When two teams folded before the fourth season, the league had just one division, allowing the 49ers to play in the final championship game, won by the Browns. Only the Browns, 49ers and Yankees managed to have winning records in the AAFC's four year history.
The 49ers and the Browns were easy choices to join the NFL in 1950, but the third team was a bit of a surprise. The Browns were so good that they won three of their four NFL championships in their first six years in the NFL.
The Yankees were blocked by the New York Giants from joining the NFL. The third team brought to the NFL from the AAFC was the lowly Baltimore Colts, but they folded early on. Oddly enough, the Indianapolis Colts have an unofficial connection with the Dayton Triangles that would make them the second oldest team in the NFL, and it too runs through the AAFC.
The NFL's Brooklyn Tigers and Boston Yanks merged. The Tigers were formerly the Dodgers and also a charter member of the NFL as the Dayton Triangles. After the end of the 1945 season, the Brooklyn Tigers half of the Tigers/Yanks team bolted to the AAFC and became the New York Yankees.
When the three AAFC teams joined the NFL, the Yankees roster was split between the Giants and the New York Bulldogs. The Bulldogs were formerly the Boston Yanks team that the Yankees had briefly merged with prior to joining the AAFC.
The Bulldogs wouldn't last long before folding, and the team was sold back to the NFL and awarded to the short lived Dallas Texans. The remains of that team were rewarded to the new Baltimore Colts franchise that exists today as the Indianapolis Colts. Officially, the league makes no connection between the Colts and the Triangles.
